Good riddance

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, according to newspaper reports, may cancel the N5.6 billion pipeline security contracts his government has handed former militants. That is good riddance to bad rubbish. That contract should not to have been signed in the first instance.

But will the president have the nerves to revise himself and do the right thing? That is doubtful, given the Jonathan patented vacillation.

One news report talked of crude production, as a result of incessant oil thefts, plummeting from the peak of 2.7 million barrels a day (mbd) after the all-time low of 1.3 mbd during the oil militancy crisis, had dropped to 2.5 mbd. Another report talked of further drop to 1.95 mbd because of the nationwide flooding crisis, during which the Niger Delta basin was among the worst hit.

As a result of the flourishing theft, Royal Dutch Shell, Nigeria’s largest crude producer, is anticipating a 20 per cent drop in its quarterly report, most of the financial bleeding coming from pipeline attacks, these same pipelines the former militants got a contract to protect.

Even the International Energy Agency (IEA), the global watchdog on oil exploration, exploitation and allied matters, has said in its latest monthly report that Nigeria had lost a whopping US $7 billion to crude oil theft – and it would appear the illicit bonanza continues unabated.

That explains a hurting president’s jeremiad, according to a news report, that the former militants had let him down “after sticking out his neck” for them! But again, that showed the plebeian thinking of giving out to private citizens a sensitive security contract, which should be the exclusive preserve of the Navy.

To make matters worse, none of the beneficiaries would appear willing to take responsibility, beyond the blatant blackmail that cancellation of the N5.6 billion contract could push back 5,000 Niger Delta youths into the unemployment market – a veiled threat that pipeline vandalisation would explode, and the country would lose much more, just as it did before the militant amnesty and this sweetheart deal.

While two of the groups have not spoken, Rex Anighoro, spokesperson for the Asari-Dokubo group, shed a penetrating light on the thinking process of his group. “The contract,” he declared, “was duly awarded by the NNPC to the beneficiaries, who are qualified citizens. So, if there is a problem, those who awarded the contract should be asked about the bottleneck.” Such swashbuckling!

But what qualification or security track record might this group of citizens have, beyond once being involved in Niger Delta militancy – and the not altogether unreasonable argument that perhaps Niger Delta natives were best placed to secure oil pipelines, since such beneficiaries would see these assets as theirs? Unfortunately, the dire results from the contract and the sanguine posturing by at least one of the beneficiary parties have not justified such optimism and reasonableness.

That however does not negate the imperative to empower locals of the area where oil is being drilled, with the telling destruction of the eco-system and attendant human misery. But it stresses the point that any decision on the security of national assets should be based strictly on clinical reason, and never on sentiments. That was the making of this debacle.

Protecting pipelines and allied marine security should be the exclusive preserve of the Nigerian Navy. So, the earlier the president corrects the anomalous situation, the better for the common wealth. But that should be without prejudice to looking into other non-security areas to empower Niger Delta locals.